It’s a sign of our times, isn’t it, that a phrase out of a big event catches the public imagination and spawns a Twitter account?

Such was the case Wednesday night in Denver, during the first presidential debate, when GOP candidate Mitt Romney said he did not support public funding for PBS. In doing so, he singled out the Sesame Street character Big Bird for special attention.

“I’m gonna stop the subsidy to PBS. I’m gonna stop other things,” Romney said to moderator Jim Lehrer, a television journalist and executive editor of the PBS NewsHour. “I like PBS, I like Big Bird, I actually like you too.”

The comments, and a quickly created Twitter account @FiredBigBird quickly went viral, gaining followers until it was abruptly shut down at noon Thursday.

Why?

The Washington Post reports it was the result of an automatic shut-off function within Twitter. The account was up and running again, then suspended again, according to the story.

According to the Post: “The terms of service for Twitter, however, list 20 reasons why its automatic spam filter might suspend an account, including some that might happen accidentally during a few hours of frenetic tweeting.”

Twitter has come to function as a digital bulletin board or wire service for news events, and we’d hope to see better from the organization. Too many of these sorts of outages could come to be seen as suppression of free speech.

Even at a time when many Americans are financially suffering, I think most would agree that we’re tired of hearing the president and his challenger speak and disagree almost solely about the ways in which they would structure government to achieve an economic recovery. Taxes, spending, regulations, entitlements and trade may be matters that occupy Washington on a day-to-day basis and must indeed be addressed to reverse our recent downturn, but they do little to inspire citizens to focus our energies on anything more than material gain. That is hardly what makes our nation great.

Coloradans generally believe that our Western heritage, landscape and outlook make our state a bastion of American values. We have benefited from our shared access to open space that imbues us with a high regard for personal freedom and a respect for the privacy of others; natural resources that have offered many of us opportunities to create, build, and develop our lives and communities without depending upon the acceptance, permission or agreement of others; rugged and pristine landscapes on a grand scale that often test our character, reinvigorate our spirits and diminish any inflated sense of self-importance; and a closeness to the interconnectedness, variability and challenges of nature that breeds in us a curiosity to educate ourselves about the workings of the world, value for the spirit of all living creatures trying to survive in it and, most of all, an appreciation for the contributions of our fellow citizens to our common good and compassion for their misfortunes.

Befitting this Colorado viewpoint, maybe, with the opening presidential debate happening right here in Denver , it’s an opportune time to ask the two candidates a few loftier questions than we are likely to hear. Here are a few I’d recommend: Read more…

President Obama has rightly cited the increase in domestic energy production – specifically in the oil and natural gas sectors -- as a net benefit to our nation in terms of both economic and energy security. In 2010, the United States imported less than half of the oil it used, marking the first time in more than a decade our nation could make this claim, and freeing us -- at least marginally -- from the stranglehold of other countries.

While some of the decrease in demand can be pinned to our nation’s lagging economy, there is no doubt that domestic production of oil and natural gas has increased under this president. And with the increase in production has come an uptick in new American jobs created by the energy sector.

Even though the nation’s unemployment rate has remained high, the energy sector has grown. In addition to jobs directly associated with energy extraction, budding new construction, engineering, and manufacturing jobs are indirectly supporting thousands more careers in communities across the country. In places like North Dakota, Pennsylvania, throughout Texas, and right here in Colorado, energy development, and specifically natural gas development, has led to significant economic growth. Read more...

As the presidential election nears and both candidates strive to characterize their strategies for addressing health care as favorable talking points for their campaigns, I am left reflecting on the most important aspect of my personal experience of chronic illness. Tellingly, what is most critical to me receives no mention in stump speeches, is given little media coverage and I’d wager will not be discussed in Wednesday’s debate.[media-credit id=239 align=”alignright” width=”150″][/media-credit]

When I was in my late 20s, I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia, a medical disorder that causes pain in all parts of my body and has no cure. Up to that point, I had been active, worked full-time and led a normal life. For the last 25 years, however, my ability to work, my basic functioning and the quality of my life have been devastated by the pain I experience daily. Needless to say, since the time of my diagnosis I have tried many therapies ranging from pharmaceutical drugs to diet changes to physical therapy. But until a doctor recommended medical marijuana three years ago, I had found little relief from the pain and had not been able to work or live normally.

What does my experience have to do with the upcoming presidential debate in Denver? Quite a bit, actually. There are hundreds of thousands of people suffering from chronic medical conditions like mine who reside in states that have passed medical marijuana laws, facilitating legal access to this life-changing treatment. Although the defining issue of President Obama’s administration was the Affordable Care Act, access to an effective therapy for those with chronic conditions was left out of the debate and the resultant legislation. Read more…

When I was 3 years old, I suffered a stroke. My mother did what millions of working parents in this country can’t do: she took paid time off to care for me. Quickly however, she used up what little time she had and was forced to take unpaid leave.

Struggling to balance work and family responsibilities took a toll on my mom. Not only was she worried about me, she also spent her days stressing about paying bills on less income and even losing her job. According to the National Opinion Research Center of the University of Chicago, one in six workers reports that they or a family member had been fired, suspended, punished or threatened with being fired for taking time off due to personal illness or to care for a sick child or relative.

Twenty-three years later, I am now a student at the University of Denver, and I’m petitioning Jim Lehrer, host of the October 3 presidential debate on my campus, to question President Obama and Governor Romney about paid sick days and family leave insurance policies. I want to make sure that working parents don’t have to struggle like my mom did. And I want our next president to address this problem by supporting paid family medical leave insurance and paid sick days laws. Read more…

Fix the Debt is a non-partisan effort to “put America on a better fiscal and economic path.” Those participating come from different social, economic and political perspectives, according to the group’s web site. The effort is intended to push member of congress to take the action necessary to adopt a plan to get the nation’s long-term debt and its deficits under control.

Former Gov. Dick Lamm, a Democrat, and former state Sen. Norma Anderson, a Republican, are among those on board with the effort.

We wish them and everyone associated with Fix the Debt the best in making their voices heard.

Every day in Colorado, voters are bombarded with information about the presidential candidates — some of it useful, much of it frivolous. Too often, the endless chatter from the cable news talking heads is focused on the latest campaign misstep or candidate gaffe.

It’s hard to believe, but despite all the noise on our television screens, the biggest challenge of our generation — climate change — has not received the attention it deserves from most reporters. But during the first presidential debate, on October 3 at the University of Denver, moderator Jim Lehrer has the chance to lead the presidential candidates in a thoughtful discussion about this issue on the national stage.

This past summer, the climate crisis fell right into America’s front yards — in some cases literally. With trees crashing through their windows, water flooding under their doorsteps and droughts destroying their crops, Americans have been hurting from the effects of weather extremes that climate scientists predicted would happen as a result of global warming. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) recently reported that July to August ranked as the 3rd hottest summer on record in the continental United States. Read more…

The first presidential debate at the University of Denver on Wednesday will touch on big challenges related to jobs, taxes, health care, the environment and other domestic policy issues. But whether you’re a Republican or a Democrat, there’s one question that trumps all others you may have while watching the debate: How will we be able to afford to face any of these challenges if we don’t also address America’s out-of-control national debt?

Our debt currently stands at $16 trillion and we’re headed for a fiscal crisis if action is not taken. Too many of our elected and appointed officials from both parties pay lip service to the debt, but they tend to treat it as a problem that should be dealt with another day.

But the debt is not a far-off issue. It is already affecting businesses and consumers in Colorado and the burden on our children and grandchildren will be crushing if we don’t act boldly. Read more…

And there was evidence that employees working for the Defense Department and White House Communication Agency had met up with foreign nationals as well.

That could spell trouble for the White House. Spokesman Jay Carney said in April that an internal investigation had found that neither White House staffers nor the White House advance team had engaged in any misconduct.

Twenty-nine heads-in-the-sand Senate Democrats – not including, thank goodness, either of Colorado’s senators – have signed a letter “opposing any cuts to Social Security as part of a deficit reduction package,” according to The Hill.

Those who signed include Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Chuck Schumer, the No. 3 Democrat.

Republicans who refuse to entertain the possibility of raising taxes are usually portrayed as the main obstacle to a bipartisan plan for deficit reduction. And they are indeed a formidable obstacle. But Democrats determined to protect entitlements at all costs from reasonable reforms are an equal problem and deserve equal criticism from deficit hawks.

“To be sure,” the letter says, “Social Security has its own long-term challenges that will need to be addressed in the decades ahead. But the budget and Social Security are separate, and should be considered separately.”

Did they say the challenges will need to be addressed in the decades ahead? Sure, let’s keep kicking the can down the road – to national bankruptcy, that is.

Vincent Carroll is The Denver Post's editorial page editor. He has been writing commentary on politics and public policy in Colorado since 1982 and was originally with the Rocky Mountain News, where he was also editor of the editorial pages until that newspaper gave up the ghost in 2009.

Guidelines: The Post welcomes letters up to 150 words on topics of general interest. Letters must include full name, home address, day and evening phone numbers, and may be edited for length, grammar and accuracy.

To reach the Denver Post editorial page by phone: 303-954-1331

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